A showcase for the world – Singapore signs off on World Para Swimming Championships

SINGAPORE – A once-in-a-lifetime trip to Asia had a “beautiful” detour for Mexican Emilio Contreras and his wife, who were in Singapore for a 10-day vacation.

A chance encounter with Mexico’s swimmers and officials at their hotel convinced Contreras to buy tickets to the Toyota World Para Swimming Championships held at the OCBC Aquatic Centre.

The 60-year-old realtor, who now lives in the United States, told The Sunday Times: “My wife did some research about Singapore and how safe and beautiful it was, so we decided to come here on our first trip to Asia.

“It’s (the championships) great, beautiful. It was great to see people with some disadvantages compete.”

Held here from Sept 21 to 27, the world swimming meet saw 585 athletes from 75 countries and territories competing across 172 events, with Italy emerging tops for a fourth consecutive time with 18 golds, 17 silvers and 11 bronzes. The US were second (18-6-11) and China third (17-9-7).

While Contreras and his countrymen celebrated their nation’s medal haul of one gold, one silver and five bronzes, the hosts also had plenty to cheer about.

Singapore’s swim queen Yip Pin Xiu clinched a silver in the 100m backstroke S2 on Sept 23, before

retaining her 50m back S2 gold three days later

to take her overall world title tally to eight.

Teammate Sophie Soon also clocked a national record of 1min 30.84sec in the women’s 100m back S11 heats on Sept 26 to better her own mark of 1:37.02 set at the Pesta Sukan in August.

Outside the swimming pool, the meet earned kudos from the athletes, fans and officials.

Kelly Fan, executive director of the Singapore Disability Sports Council (SDSC), who is also part of the local organising committee, said: “We are very proud that the team has worked very closely together to make it happen.

“It’s our first time organising a world championship-level event in Singapore, so there were many things that we were unsure of, but I believe that we have made Singapore proud.”

The event also allowed the organisers to showcase para-sports to Singaporeans through the roadshows and festive villages ahead of the competition.

While the 3,000-capacity centre was about half full on most days, crowd numbers picked up on days when Singaporean swimmers competed in the finals and on the last day of the meet on Sept 27.

Fan added: “Spectatorship has been very encouraging. Singaporeans showed up when it mattered and for Team Singapore as well.

“We saw a very active and very motivational crowd cheering on our athletes and I think that was the home-ground advantage that we were looking for. I think that met our expectations, but at the same time, our expectations were not very high.

“There are still things we need to work on to make Singaporeans more aware and I hope next time, it’s not just showing up for Team Singapore, but to understand these athletes are going to give them stories that you have never seen before and are going to be able to inspire them in different ways.”

The final day saw Toh Wei Soong clocking 1:04.83 to finish fifth in the men’s 100m freestyle S7. Ukraine’s Andrii Trusov was first in a championship record of 59.90, ahead of Italy’s Federico Bicelli (1:00.80) and Russian neutral athlete Aleksei Ganiuk (1:03.67).

Toh said: “I’m really thankful for the crowd and especially people coming down consistently, because it’s a long competition across the whole week and to come down every day for the athletes here, more than just me.

“That takes a lot of kindness and dedication, and I really respect that because to come here and come with a positive attitude and share it with everyone, that’s a very powerful thing.”

Earlier in the morning’s heats, Danielle Moi (1:14.13) finished 10th out of 10 in the women’s 100m butterfly S14, while Darren Chan (1:07.00) was last out of 20 in the men’s 100m fly S14 heats.

There were more world records notched in the pool, as the Czech Republic’s David Kratochvil clocked 4:19.83 in the men’s 400m freestyle S11 final to lower American John Morgan’s 1992 record of 4:20.83 in Barcelona.

Britain’s Poppy Maskill then lowered her own world mark in the women’s 100m butterfly S14 final, clocking 1:02.58 to eclipse the 1:02.74 set in July.

In the final event of the championship, Australia cruised to victory in the mixed 4x100m free relay 34pts final, clocking 3:58.40 to lower Italy’s mark of 4:01.54 set at the Paris Paralympics.

This brought the total number of world records broken in Singapore to 23, with American Katie Kubiak claiming four.

The 22-year-old, who clinched four golds, a silver and two bronzes at her first championships, said: “It’s been such a surreal experience… It’s been a very long week, but a very rewarding week.

“And it was great getting up and racing against some of the best athletes in the entire world. And I feel like they really brought out the best in me this week, and that showed in and out of the water.”

Craig Nicholson, head of World Para Swimming, told ST in an interview: “The event’s been really positive for Singapore, a positive event for World Para Swimming.

“It’s the first world championships we’ve had in Asia and Singapore put on a great show for the athletes.”